Forget apples — a Kansas State University professor says he’s living proof that a Twinkie a day keeps the doctor away.

Nutrition expert Mark Haub shed 26.6 pounds during a 10-week class experiment in which he says he fed primarily on Twinkies, snack cakes, doughnuts, Doritos and other foods rich in saturated fats.

He was testing whether calorie-counting is more important for weight loss than nutritional value.

The results were sweet.

The 5-foot-10 Haub dropped from 201 to 174 pounds, and his body fat fell from 33.4 percent to 24.9 percent. His “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, fell 20 percent, while his “good” cholesterol, or HDL, rose 20 percent.

Haub said yesterday he isn’t recommending people go on a junk-food binge, but he believes his study shows that dieters don’t have to give up sweets to lose weight.